Review of Screaming Trumpet by Realitone

When you need a living, breathing solo trumpet that cuts through any arrangement, this is the tool for you. With over 60 unique attack and release articulations, and true legato, this Kontakt instrument delivers the goods. Besides, it’s probably the only way you’ll ever get Hollywood legend Wayne Bergeron to play on one of your tracks!

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Review of Screaming Trumpet by Realitone

Realitone Screaming Trumpet Expression Controls added.

While there are other solo trumpet libraries out there, none match the versatility and the exuberance of this library. Since it’s geared towards soloing (hence the title, Screaming Trumpet!), it may not blend so well with other brass libraries. But if you’re looking for a trumpet with lots of soul to sit on top of your funky or jazzy stacks, you’ll want to check this one out.

Screaming Trumpet normally sells for $149 from Realitone

At the time of posting it was listed on sale for $99.95 during intro pricing.

Thoughts

In a world, chock-a-block with sample library designers and libraries, Realitone has been carving out a niche for itself producing easy to use, one-of-a-kind libraries. Don’t let the company’s laid-back ethos and ‘aw-shucks’ style throw you. Screaming Trumpet is a serious tool that will help you sculpt realistic sounding trumpet solos and melody lines. It offers a beautiful sample set played by a true Hollywood legend, Wayne Bergeron. (Just Google him…)

The actual samples were originally recorded by a company called Warp IV, then licensed by Realitone. Realitone then wrote some brilliant scripting, added all the articulations you could need, accessible via keyswitches, and wrapped it all up in a clean, attractive and functional interface.

When you fire up Screaming Trumpet for the first time, it will ask you to input your license code.

There’s a strange sliding type bar system to input your activation code that took me a few minutes to figure out. (Just goes to show you that logic is not universally applicable!) Of course, it’s all explained in the included manual, but who reads manuals?

Once, your number is entered in, you click on submit. Before doing anything else though, make sure to save your Kontakt instrument (or overwrite the existing one). If you don’t do that, you will have to enter the number again next time you open the library.

Once open, there are only two pages to chose from, the main page and a settings page.

On the main page, you will see a keyboard on the left hand side that shows the default articulations loaded into your key-switches. They’re color-coded to correspond with the different articulations; yellow for sustains and swells, green for attacks to start phrases and red for releases to end phrases.

You can go to the settings page to replace any of these articulations with the ones you want to use from the 60 odd available. They pretty much cover the gamut of trumpet technique, from slurs and flutters, to growls and scoops. You pick one of these articulations as you would any other key-switch; by pressing on the corresponding note on your keyboard or on the interface. But here’s the clever part. As soon as you release the key-switch, the instrument automatically falls back to the preceding key-switch playing style. How does that work in practice?

Say you have a nice sustained melody where you want to scoop up into some of the notes in a bluesy style. You press your first key-switch from the yellow keys, perhaps dark sustain for the main phrase. You then press the key-switch for the scoop up articulation fromthe green attack keys, and hold it. While holding, you play your entry note and then immediately release the attack (green) key-switch. The software automatically falls back to the dark sustain articulation for the rest of the phrase. Clever, no? This makes it very easy to play realistic melodies and phrases. Of course, unless you are a midi keyboard wiz, you’ll probably have to practice a bit before getting a realistic performance. But the scripting to do so is all there.

Along with the true sampled legato, there is also a scripted legato. Why the difference? Well, the true legato has all of the little chiffs and scoops that a real live player would use. Even one as accomplished as Wayne Bergeron. The trumpet is actually a difficult instrument to play accurately especially in the high notes. It takes a lot of air to get up there, and so most players will tend to push or slide into the higher notes. The true legato patches capture those idiosyncrasies

But if you want a cleaner legato transition without the quirks, that’s where the scripted legato feature comes in. It creates a smooth legato feel without the imperfections. But you might want to consider keeping those quirks if feasible. They can add a lot to making your horn parts sound more authentic!

Another useful feature is the repeat key-switch. Sometimes, you need to play some repetitive 16th note that’s just too difficult to get right by playing on one key. The repeat key switch solves that problem. It will trigger the same note you just played, making it easier to perform the repetition by alternating between the two keys.

The software also has 3 round robins for every articulation. Coupled with the 5 velocity layers available for each note, you won’t need to fear the dreaded machine gun effect!

There’s a small but useful effects section. You can adjust the depth and pitch of the vibrato here. And there is a reverb that adds some depth and dimension to the instrument, though I found that when applied a little more liberally, it kind of washed out the trumpet samples. You’ll probably get a cleaner more defined sound using your own dedicated high-end verb plugin. Especially if you are trying to blend this instrument into another existing recording.

There is also a Timbre function. It’s not an EQ. It actually uses other samples. You can choose from very bright to very dark. The dark settings almost sound like another instrument. I could definitely hear that setting in a mournful, melancholic cue.

All in all, this is a very well laid out and accessible instrument. It sounds amazing, really nailing the solo trumpet sound. From slow and bluesy to fast and funky, it’s got the tone you need. Though it’s fairly intuitive and easy to play, to really get the best out of it, will probably take some work and practice. The library seems especially suited to those like me, who play in their parts rather than program them. In fact, the product seems to lend itself more to live performance than to detailed note-by-note midi scripting.

But the real power of this library is that it gives you everything you need to sculpt realistic sounding trumpet solos. After all, when you need a trumpet solo, you need a trumpet soloist. Screaming trumpet (name aside) can more than fill that role!

Facts

This library weighs in at 2.25 GB of uncompressed .wav files. It features 8 sustain articulations, 20 start/attack articulations, and 27 release articulations. All articulations, including attacks and releases, are full range, from E2 to a high Bb4, (Trumpet double-high C).

It requires the full version of Kontakt 5.2 or higher.

Screaming Trumpet (can’t get over that name!) is on sale right now at the introductory price of How long that will go on, I’m not sure. So you might want to check it out.

Screaming Trumpet normally sells for $149 from Realitone

Demos of Screaming Trumpet by Realitone

Videos of Screaming Trumpet by Realitone